2.Contribution of Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz:

In 1955, the Swiss astronomers discovered an exoplanet at an observatory in France. It was named orbiting a sun like star called 51 Pegasi b (or 51 Peg b). It orbits very close to the sun. The mass of the exoplanet is half of Jupiter and its temperature are around 1200 degree Celsius.

At the time of its discovery by the astronomers this close distance for a planet to its start was not compatible with the theories of planet formation. Hence it led to discussions of planetary migration. Finally their discovery was proved right and it created revolution in astronomy.

Today, exoplanets are being discovered very frequently — over 4,000 are known — which is remarkable progress from three decades ago, when not even one exoplanet was known.

Awardees in the field of Medicine:

The 2019 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to scientists William G Kaelin, Jr, Peter J Ratcliffe and Gregg L Semenza.

They received the award jointly for their discoveries of “how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. they established the basis for our understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function.

Their research has “paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anaemia, cancer and many other diseases.

The three will share the Nobel prize sum of nine million Swedish kronor or about 9 Lakh 14 thousand US dollar. They will receive their prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

It is the 110th prize in the category that has been awarded since 1901.

About Nobel Prize:

Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist, and the inventor of dynamite, in his last will and testament in 1895, gave the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizeswhich were collectively came to be known as the “Nobel Prizes”.

The awards are started from the year of 1901 for five different fields and in the year 1969, the field of Economic sciences was also included.

The Nobel Prizes are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards given for intellectual achievement in the world.

The various awards that forms the group of “Nobel Prizes” are as follows:

1.Nobel Prize for Physics

2.Nobel Prize for Chemistry

3.Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

4.Nobel Prize for Literature

5.Nobel Prize for Peace.

6.Nobel prize for Economic Sciences (added only in the year 1969)

The Awards are presented by:

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences confers the prizes for Physics, Chemistry, and Economics. (Sweden Based)

The Karolinska Institute confers the prize for physiology or medicine. (Sweden Based)

The Swedish Academy confers the prize for literature. (Sweden Based)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee based in Oslo confers the prize for peace. (Norway Based)